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Church's satellite site something to dance about

Grace Point Church opens new location in dance studio

From left, Pastor Tim Hughes and Pastor Josh Cooper stand outside the new satellite location of Grace Point Church at 118 N.W. Elm Row. The church opted to maintain its building at 5400 S.W. Huntoon and develop several satellite campuses across Topeka in the coming years.

Congregations across the United States are making an impact in their community by branching out to existing sites across their town, meeting in places that are more functional than fancy.

That is the strategy being employed by Grace Point Church, 5400 S.W. Huntoon, which is embarking on a new plan it hopes will extend its outreach from Topeka’s west side to neighborhoods in other areas of the capital city.

The first such satellite church opened recently in the Fuzion School of Dance studio, 118 N.W. Elm Row in North Topeka.

Services at 6 p.m. Saturdays began in early March, with some 28 adults and 18 children from the main church location committing to forming the nucleus of the new location for at least the next year.

So far, the results have been good, said Tim Hughes, 36, lead pastor at Grace Point Church’s main location on S.W. Huntoon.

“I’ve been very pleased,” he said. “We have a group of people who are committed to making this work.”

In anticipation of its change of direction and move toward satellite locations, Fairlawn Heights Wesleyan Church in June 2013 changed its name to Grace Point Church. The name change, Hughes said, was made to reflect the congregation’s plan to expand to different Topeka neighborhoods. Grace Point remains affiliated with the Wesleyan Church, an evangelical Christian denomination.

The decision to move to a satellite-style campus arrangement was an about-face for the congregation, which a decade ago had its sights set on a new, larger and more modern building on the west edge of Topeka.

Hughes said the church in the early to mid-2000s purchased a 40-acre tract of land on the southeast corner of S.W. Huntoon and Urish Road.

However, the congregation began to reconsider building what Hughes called a “big-box” church after its capital campaign was completed. Part of the change had to do with the economic meltdown of 2008, which made constructing a new building more of a challenge than had been anticipated at first.

“It wasn’t the best time to try to build a bigger box,” Hughes said. “So we went back to the drawing board.”

Grace Point Church leaders came across reports from congregations in other parts of the nation where, instead of building larger structures, growing churches moved to smaller, already-existing buildings in the same city.

The smaller campus arrangement serves several purposes for Grace Point Church, Hughes said.

First, it allows the church to fulfill its mission of reaching out to other parts of the city, rather than only its west-side neighborhood.

Second, it allows a more economical way to expand. Rather than start expensive building campaigns that typically run into the millions of dollars, space can be rented or shared with other businesses for a fraction of the cost.

Third, the move of several dozen people from the main church to the satellite church opens up space for more people to attend the main church, something that already is occurring at Grace Point, Hughes said.

And fourth, the move to the satellite congregation concept allows the main Grace Point Church to stay in the 400- to 450-member range.

“Our members like that size,” Hughes said. “It’s not too small, but it isn’t so big where they don’t know everybody.”

The key to embarking on a new plan of action, where the church opens up location in existing facilities, is that a core team of leaders makes the commitment to help get things started in a positive direction.

When it became evident Grace Point Church was moving to the satellite campus format, it brought aboard Pastor Josh Cooper, who previously was serving a Wesleyan church in Holland, Mich.

Cooper, 35, said he came to Topeka to meet with church leaders and found that Grace Point and its vision was exactly what he was looking for.

With much planning and prayer, the church decided to make its first location in North Topeka, where Cooper and his family moved.

Cooper said finding space in the Fuzion School of Dance was a “God-thing,” as he had been driving by various areas of North Topeka in search of a location that was both accessible and affordable.

He said he went into the building — a former warehouse located just west of N. Kansas Avenue on N.W. Elm Row — and visited with the proprietor of the dance studio to see if she might be interested in renting out her building to a church on Saturday nights.

“She said, ‘Well, I’ve been thinking of renting out some of my space for banquets,’ ” Cooper said. “So I said, ‘Well, let’s talk about this.’ And it worked out that we were able to rent this space on a month-to-month basis.”

Cooper is the church’s pastor and leads all Saturday night services, accompanied by a worship leader who is on hand for music at the start of the service. The message is delivered by Hughes via video from his sermon of the previous Sunday at the main Grace Point church.

Cooper said members of the group that came over from the main campus arrive at the north-side location before the Saturday night service begins to set up speakers, a platform, chairs and “bouncy-houses” and other items for the children’s ministry.

Then, when the service ends around 7:15 p.m., the volunteers tear everything down and put it in a storage closet so the building can revert back to a dance studio.

Cooper said the church has been “very intentional” about its move to satellite campus locations across the city. The plan is for the North Topeka location to be self-sustaining within three years. After that, the church plans on developing other locations — one at a time — in other areas of Topeka over a 10-. 20- and even 30-year period.

As for the 40 acres of land at S.W. Huntoon and Urish, the church continues to hold onto it for possible expansion in the future.